‘Pervasiveness of DEI’ means ending it will take work at state, federal, and accreditor levels, Rep. Henry Stone says
A retired member of the United States Air Force and former college football coach, Iowa state Rep. Henry Stone never saw his path leading to politics.
But after being prompted to run for office, Stone (pictured) now is championing efforts to end diversity, equity, and inclusion in higher education institutions – both in Iowa and nation-wide.
“DEI and what it has become is something we need to step away from,” Stone told The College Fix in a recent phone interview.
Stone said he had no strong agenda when he agreed run for office; he simply wanted to “be a voice for [the] district” and represent its people.
His background is the military. He served numerous tours overseas and received several recognitions for his service, including two Meritorious Service Medals. He also is a former high school and college football coach, and he and his wife are foster parents.
After being elected in 2021 to the Iowa House’s Ninth District, the ongoing debates about DEI in higher education institutions, companies, and organizations prompted the lawmaker to act.
“What DEI has turned out to be needs to be removed and stripped away from all teachings in schools as well as in any form of accreditation process,” Stone said.
Stone, who is Asian American, co-sponsored Iowa’s ban on DEI. The law, which passed May 9, 2024, prohibits public institutions from having an office dedicated to DEI and from hiring anyone to perform the duties usually seen in an office of DEI.
The legislation is supposed to “provide equal treatment to everyone by banning public institutions, including Iowa’s three public universities, from having DEI offices, programs and staff,” he wrote in a December op-ed at the Wall Street Journal.
“I thought that our law would soon drive DEI from our college campuses and state government. I was wrong,” he wrote.
MORE: Education Department spent at least $1 billion on DEI under Biden: report
Speaking with The Fix this month, Stone pointed to the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine as an example. The institution’s leaders have argued that the college’s DEI program needs to stay or it will lose accreditation – a claim Stone said accreditation groups dispute.
However, as Stanley Goldfarb of the medical nonprofit Do No Harm explains, “accreditors know that if they merely nod to the value of DEI, universities will read it as a requirement, while university administrators know they can point to accreditors to justify keeping DEI programs. The confusion is enough to weaken the reform we passed in Iowa,” Stone wrote in his op-ed.
He told The Fix a person’s race, gender, or religion should not define them. In any role but especially in the case of a medical school, entry and promotional opportunities should be based on a person’s merit, he said.
Despite his frustration, Stone expressed hope that President Donald Trump and the Republican-majority U.S. Congress will be able to finish the job started by states like Iowa.
Trump promised to fire “radical Left accreditors” in a campaign video, and his transition team told The Fix in December that the president “will deliver” on his plan for higher education.
Stone would like to see Congress pass H.R. 3724, the End Woke Higher Education Act. The bill would prohibit accrediting agencies from “assessing an institution’s commitment to any ideology, belief, or viewpoint” in order to receive accreditation.
“The lying would stop–and schools would finally get back to respecting the fundamental truth that we’re all created equal,” he wrote in his op-ed.
He told The Fix he hopes the future will show both “clear-cut guidelines when it comes to accreditation for colleges” as well as the eventual removal of the “pervasiveness of DEI.”
MORE: Iowa universities cutting $1.3M in DEI positions after regents’ directives
IMAGE: Iowa state Rep. Henry Stone
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